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White Plains' Brookfield Commons starts $42.18M rebuild

The White Plains Housing Authority is partnering with green developer Jonathan Rose Companies to break ground on a a $42.18 million mixed-use affordable housing community to rebuild Brookfield Commons off South Lexington Avenue.

It is the first phase of an ambitious plan to rebuild Brookfield Commons, 450 public housing units built in 1949 once called Winbrook Campus.

Phase one, called Prelude, is on South Lexington Avenue and Quarropas Street, and will include 104 new affordable apartments and a 13,500-square-foot community center, with job-training programs and an employment center operated by the White Plains Youth Bureau.

The plan is to finish the first building by spring 2015, moving residents into those units as the four older brick buildings are demolished one by one and replacements built. No resident will be displaced or moved off-site during construction, officials stress.

"This (current) housing is from a different era," said White Plains Mayor Thomas Roach, noting his mother lived in Brookfield as a child. "We value affordable housing in White Plains and to be able to provide it with this quality is very exciting and it signals a revitalization within the city."

When completed, the new complex will have market-rate and affordable housing, retail and office space, and public spaces. Green features include Energy Star appliances, porous paving, systems to conserve water and recycle rain water, energy-efficient lighting with sensors and high performance insulation.

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(Photo: Barbara L. Nackman/The Journal News)

Sandra Hull Pearce, 61, said the building site is where she and her siblings were raised and played kickball as children.

"My mother grew up here and lived here," said the White Plains resident, who still lives nearby. "It is very important to have something redone. It makes people proud and think of redoing themselves, too."

The plans to update Brookfield housing began in 2009. Financing is through state and federal funding, the city of White Plains and Westchester County — with nearly $30 million from the state agency Homes & Community Renewal.